The Home Front Cares provides responsive, emergency financial aid and other support to Colorado's service members, veterans and military families. Quite often, our grants pay rent or utilities that save a veteran from homelessness or keep the power turned on for a military family.

According to our 2012 audit, our administrative overhead is less than 14%-an outstanding figure for a nonprofit. Nearly 87 cents of every dollar goes toward aid and programs: Grants to Families, Energy Assistance, Adaptive Housing and Welcome Home Heroes.Since 2003, we have helped more than 2,500 military and veteran families with grants.

The need for our aid will increase in the next few years, as the wars abroad wind down and 100,000 service members exit the military into an uncertain economy. They, and their families, have sacrificed so much for us. It is time to show them that their home front cares about them. Please help us.

I know it's only September. But I am afraid that we have a hard winter ahead for our Colorado military.

As the wars wind down and the ranks of young disabled veterans grow, the need for our support continues to surge. Today, more than 90 percent of our clients are veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and more than three quarters of them are disabled. They come to us in desperation, after going months without any income, still seeking employment and waiting for VA benefits to start. It is heartbreaking, but we must say no to too many of them.

Sadly, our financial support has not grown at the same pace as requests for support from clients and partner agencies. In July, we began focusing our grants to prevent eviction, homelessness and utility shut-offs. Unfortunately, they already were the vast majority of our cases. Those veterans, their families, and we need your support more than ever.

There are two special ways that you can support us as we prep for a hard winter: our annual dinner and our "$10 for 10" Veterans Day drive.

Our annual "For The Love Of Our Troops" dinner is Oct. 17 at Broadmoor Hall. The ninth annual dinner is our signature event, letting community and business leaders mingle and give thanks to our soldiers, airmen and other service members who serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and other deployed locations.

This year's guest speaker is General William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, and KKTV anchor and new THFC board member Betty Sexton is once again emcee.

A more affordable-but equally impactful-way to support our mission is through our coming "$10 for 10" drive. 2013 marks our tenth anniversary. This Veterans Day, we hope you will donate $10 (or more!) to commemorate our anniversary, and just as importantly, ask your friends and family to do the same! Together, you and they can make a difference in the lives of our Colorado military. You'll see more about the $10 for 10 campaign in the coming weeks, so watch your Facebook, email and local news!

So this fall, please remember that it may be our 10th anniversary, but we're not celebrating yet. More veterans are leaving the service every day. We're getting ready for a hard winter. Please help.

The Home Front Cares was once again honored to hold our annual golf tournament at the exclusive, prestigious Sanctuary presented by RE/MAX on June 27.

We are so grateful to the Liniger Family and the entire Sanctuary staff for helping us support Colorado veterans and military families who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms. Special thanks go to Sanctuary's Andrew Hedrick and Leanne Rupnow, for their patience, care and feeding.

Robert A. "Bob" Carlone, the co-founder of The Home Front Cares, passed away peacefully at his home July 2.

A retired Air Force colonel, decorated pilot and West Point graduate, Carlone co-founded THFC in 2003 with another retired Air Force colonel, the late Joe Henjum, when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan started. As Vietnam veterans, they were keenly aware of the financial and emotional struggles for families of deployed military members, and how easily these families could fall through the cracks of bureaucracy and society.

In 2004, the organization incorporated as a 501(c)3, and in their first full year of operation provided some $34,000 in aid to local military families. Since then, THFC has expanded its services statewide, raising more than $5 million to aid more than 2,500 Colorado service members, veterans and military families.

Carlone's service to society extended beyond his military career and THFC. He was active in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Sertoma International, and was well-known across the Pikes Peak area military and nonprofit communities.

"Bob Carlone's tireless work and passion for military families inspired not only a decade of success for one nonprofit, but anentire community," said Tom Daschbach, THFC President. "He touched more lives than we can count, and his leadership and spirit will always carry us forward."

Last year, The Home Front Cares announced the dedication of the Bob Carlone Military Community Service Award to recognize a Colorado group or entity, whether for-profit or nonprofit, a family, company or other organization

that supports military members of all services and their families. The first recipient of the award will be announced prior to THFC's annual dinner, Oct. 17 at Broadmoor Hall.

Carlone is survived by his wife Mary Lucille Carlone of Colorado Springs, daughters Melanie Carlone of Eugene, Ore. and Leeza Steindorf of Frankfurt, Germany, and three sisters, Annette Taglianetti of New Jersey, Nancy Monaco of New York and Annamarie Heaney of Florida.

In lieu of gifts, the family asked for donations to "The Bob and Mary Carlone Fund" at The Home Front Cares.

St. Pauls UMC Church Missions Group & Women's Group supported THFC with a yard sale & special collection during the month of July this summer

Doers & Donors

New supporters make a personal donation with a great story

Personal donations are as essential to THFC's survival as our big events and corporate donors. We recently received a $300 donation from a new supporter who threw a small party in our honor. No one on our staff knew Tim and Anita Russell, so we asked Anita why she chose THFC.

Here's what she said in email:

"My husband Tim and I have lived in Colorado Springs for 10 years now. He retired from the Army in 2005, and now works as a civilian employee at Peterson AFB. I am employed with Child Youth and School Services on Fort Carson, and work with military families on a daily basis. We have heard and read about your organization many times and appreciate that you are there to assist military and veterans.

"Our "Eve of the 4th" party became a tradition when we moved into our current home, which has a great view of the fireworks that Fort Carson usually shoots on 3 July. We always provide everything for the party, yet our guests still ask to bring something. This year, we decided that if they want to bring something, we would ask that they instead contribute to a local charity. We recommended The Home Front Cares.

"We pulled down some information from your website and had it available for our guests. Many of our guests don't have any direct ties tothe military, but all recognize the important role of the military in our community. More importantly, they all realized, as we do, the important role of your organization to our community members. That, plus perhaps the timing of the party-celebrating our nation's independence and the role of the military, resulted in the donations.

"We certainly hope the donations, though small, will have some impact to our military members."

Anita and Tim Russell

Your Donation Makes A Difference

A Client Testimonial

I wanted to share our heartfelt thank your organization, for the tremendous help you've provided. With my service-connected health problems worsening I may have no choice but to apply for additional benefits through the Veterans Administration, and possibly the Social Security Administration. Both of these agencies are inundated with applicants, and the procedures are so full of procedural red-tape and redundancy, it may take a year or more for any compensation to take effect. Your organization of caring individuals has made a world of difference to my family and I. At least some of the stress we were carrying around has now been lightened, thanks to you. So please accept our sincere thanks to all of you at "The Home Front Cares," for the remarkable work that you do.

~Tommy Sosbee

"It is not enough to be willing to fight and die for your country, you must be willing to fight and live for your country as well; for sometimes the greater enemy, threat or tyrant comes from within, not from the outside".